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Thrips battle pt2 - predatory mite experiment! :)

plaisir8 said:
Although the efficacy of predatory mites have been established...I was thinking about alternatives.
For example, does anybody know how thrips (or other small arthropod pest ie spider mites) interact with an increase of atmospheric anions?
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No idea, but how do you plan to achieve this and would it also affect the growth of the plant or more specifically pollenation?
 
Nova said:
I understood some of those words.
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:rofl:
 
 
Just ordered a few thousand cucumeris :dance:  Not sure why I'm doing a happy chili dance... it's definitely not as a preventative....
 
Oh right. I ordered from The Bug Factory, based on the island. So far, they look impressive, if they can ever finish their website. Much preferable to ordering from across the country.
 
You can get a mite variety pack here in the states.
 
http://gardeningzone.com/collections/natural-spider-mite-control
 
I don't know why though,they/some eat each other.
 
I guess they either ship a couple bottles of each mite or you get whatever one was hungriest sitting in the single bottle in a pile of half eaten mites that became dinner.   :)
Zombie mites....
 
 
Tech reports:
 
http://www.tiptopbio.com/tech_bulletins.html
 
 
$1.00 + s&h
 
http://www.evergreengrowers.com/amblyseius-cucumeris-987.html
 
moosery said:
 
 
No idea, but how do you plan to achieve this and would it also affect the growth of the plant or more specifically pollenation?
Click to expand...
 
So, think it could work for an enclosed growing space (as humanity still lacks the technology to fine tune the weather--if we did bye bye to global warming). The newer negative ion emitters marketed as air purifiers instead of health aids seem to be able to produce in pretty large quantities. Think I saw some guy in CA selling a product targeted for growing hemp--to remove odours from the air and stimulate growth. In fact, there seems to be a good number of studies (albeit old) linking increased atmospheric ions to faster/more growth. ex: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2195229/ The mechanism isn't exactly clear though--I would guess it's a combination of stimulation of the plant's electric signalling pathways, increased foliar uptake of charged molecules, maybe less air-born pathogens to deal with. In any case that would be worth it in itself, even if the thrips don't care at all.
 
But good point about pollination. I think it wouldn't be a big deal for peppers, since the flowers tend to self pollinate. They don't have to travel that far so less chance of being snatched out of the air. On the other hand, I remember there was a piece on NPR last year that talked about bees being attracted to the negative electric field of flowers--maybe it'll attract more pollinators to the area! or confuse them once they're in the vicinity.
 
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